Broken
by lowlaury
Summary: A broken guitar and two broken hearts. / / Based on Andre's Horrible Girl. BADE. Rated T for language.


**Disclaimer: I'm not sure if you have noticed, but I'm obviously not Dan Schneider.**

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><p><em><strong>Broken<strong>_

_. Jewelry_

He doesn't have the heart to take it off. Not yet. Not so soon. He closes his fist around the shiny silver ring dangling from his neck and squeezes it tightly, feeling the cold metal pushing against his skin. Memories of their time together flock to his mind as if it was just that little ring holding and now releasing them all.

_Jade._ Is she still wearing hers?

The ring heats up quickly under his firm grip, leaving his palm sweaty and the edges squeezing marks into his flesh. He doesn't care. He just wants to hold on to this piece of metal and the warm and fuzzy feeling he gets when closing his eyes and just letting the memories wash over him. It makes the pain seem far away, even if it is just for a split second. He is an idiot for breaking up with her. Probably the biggest idiot walking this planet.

And now it's too late.

She refuses to talk to him. Avoids him in the hallways, at lunch, everywhere she goes. Hell, she doesn't even look at him. As if she was desperately trying to erase him off her life, as if all those feelings never existed, as if it was only just a big and stupid dream that two people of such young age could ever have a serious and long-lasting relationship. During the whole past week since their breakup, he only managed to catch her glance _once_.

It was during lunch break. The group sat at their usual table, eating more or less quietly, except for Cat's weird stories breaking the silence every once in a while. This whole situation isn't just awkward for Beck and Jade, but makes everyone else feel uncomfortable too, even though especially Tori does her best to act like nothing ever happened. But all of her efforts are for nothing, seeing as every other student of Hollywood Arts (at least it feels like that to Beck) makes a habit of blatantly staring at the two of them, probably hoping for drama or fights of some sort. He is disgusted with them. With the cheerleaders who make bets on who he will go out with first. With all those kids he has never even talked to, but who he overhears telling people how Jade has never deserved such a great boyfriend anyway. With the people who just love gossip and don't care about how Beck and Jade feel about all this. It is simply grossing him out.

He didn't even notice that he was absentmindedly staring at Jade picking at her salad, when she raises her head and her eyes meet his for a second or two, before she quickly drops her gaze again. But those two seconds were enough to see how broken she was. How bad _he_ had broken her. Her eyes full of reproaches, her face marked with the pain of the past week, she made it seem like it had all been a big fat lie. Like he was a clinical liar and nothing of what they have had, had ever been real, like he had betrayed and humiliated her by acting out his little play of false hopes and feelings.

But if she had taken the time to look further behind his walls like she once used to, she would have seen that he is just as broken as she is.

And here he is now, unable to take off a stupid little necklace and not willing to let her go just yet. Or ever, for that matter.

_. Dresses_

She would love to forget that a guy named Beck Oliver ever existed, but the fact that her closet is as good as empty and she has next to nothing decent to wear because most of her clothes are at his stupid RV, makes it especially hard. You would expect a girl like Jade West to just kick her way in that freaking vehicle, grab her stuff and leave, but it's really not as simple as that.

Getting her clothes and other belongings (who knows how much she has left there in all those years) back would just make it more real. And Jade doesn't want it to be real. Or does she? She doesn't even know anymore.

All she knows is that it hurts and that Beck is a fucking idiot and that she needs to buy a whole bunch of new clothes now. The problem is that Jade hates shopping, except if it's shopping at that amazing scissor shop she always went to when she was still with- nevermind.

_Just forget him, Jade,_ she reminds herself as she dials Cats number to arrange a shopping spree with her. She knows that Cat would never say no to that. And isn't that what girls in those dumb chick flicks always do when they get dumped by their boyfriends? Get a new haircut, buy new clothes, try something new? Maybe this is the time.

Just about two hours later she's at the mall with Cat, a stack of skirts and shirts carelessly thrown over her arm as she rifles through yet another pile of clothes. "Jadey!" Cat suddenly exclaims. "This is perfect for you!" She his holding up a short black dress, simple, but yet fancy due to the ruffled ends. It looks a bit cuter than what Jade usually wears, but she has to admit that it's not bad. For Cat anyway.

"Give it," she bluntly says and pulls it on top of the pile on her arm. Cat smiles widely, because Jade has never accepted any of the clothes picked by her before, and runs off to find more. When she comes back, she hands two more dresses to Jade. Again, Jade is surprised that she actually likes them. She never thought that she'd be the type to wear dresses (that's more of Cat's thing), but as she tries them on, she decides that it's about damn time to realize that she _is_. Because, let's face it, she looks mighty fine in them.

And so she buys all three of those dresses and as she hands the money to the cashier, she catches herself wondering if Beck will notice the change.

_. Dates_

'I have a date tonight!'

The words hit him like a shower of heavy rocks and with every time he re-reads them, he breaks a little more inside. A date? Really? After just one week? He stares at his screen for a good 10 minutes before his brain is able to function again. She's just joking, right?

He clenches his fist around the ring around his neck (it's almost becoming a habit). A ring. A promise. But does she even still care? He's about to comment on her post or text her or even _call_ her, when realization hits him. He doesn't have the right to do that.

She's not his girlfriend anymore. Because _he _broke up with her. _He _let her go. So he is just the opposite of in the position to judge and keep her from dating who knows who. And it hurts. It hurts to just sit here and be unable to do anything. The thought of someone else touching her makes him want to puke. What if her date is some douchebag like Ryder Daniels? No, she _is_ very picky after all.

He is still pondering whether she would really go on a date only one week after they broke up after three years of dating or not, when his phone buzzes and he has a new text from Robbie, asking him if he was ready for their 'thing at a place'. He really isn't in the mood to explain to Robbie that it was just an excuse so they wouldn't have to eat sushi with Andre and his horrible girlfriend, and neither does he want to hang out with him. But seeing that his other option is staying at home on a Saturday night, drowning in his breakup blues, it suddenly doesn't sound too bad anymore.

Distraction is good, even if it means spending time with Robbie and his weird puppet.

_. Guitars_

The only reason why she recognizes that guitar right away is that Beck loves those instruments and sometimes, when it was rainy or cold outside and they had nothing to do but to snuggle up in his RV, he taught her how to play or how to tell the different brands and kinds apart. Sometimes he would play and she would sing, sometimes she would just listened to his beautiful melodies, sometimes they would sit there in silence, Jade on his lap, while he led her fingers over the strings carefully, playing her favorite songs with her.

So when she sees that beautiful shiny guitar dangling from the ceiling that night, she gets all excited to see such a wonderful instrument with her very own eyes, and for a moment she imagines every possible way to tell Beck about this, before she remembers that she _can't_,because they're broken up and he's an idiot and she is heartbroken.

It's his fault that she's even here in the first place. With Cat. Dogsitting. On a Saturday night.

She makes fun of the guitar. Maybe she's hoping that it will ease the pain because _he_ wouldn't be pleased to see that. The rope snaps and the guitar crashes through the window, landing somewhere on the hard ground in the garden. Was it the glass or her heart shattering? She isn't sure.

If it wasn't for Cat's shocked and worried expression, she'd be glad to see this fucking guitar gone. (Even though she didn't break it on purpose.) But the fact that Elvis Presley's guitar is – _was_ – probably impayable, dulls her joy really. It's no fun at all.

She didn't think it was even possible, but the situation gets even worse when suddenly Robbie appears at the door and – on top of all – brings Beck with him (why are the two of them hanging out together anyway?). _Beck_ of all people.

She tries to mentally deny it, but her heart jumps when he asks her about her 'date' and she thinks that there's a tiny little pinch of jealousy in his voice.

.

He is more than relieved to see her here, with Cat, than at the movies making out with some other guy. Though he must admit that this whole situation is more than awkward and he'd rather not have to spend the evening in the same room with her, while they're like this.

.

She feels a tingling sensation building up inside her stomach when he doesn't even try to deny that he has been on her _Slap _page. He still cares. And she can't fail to notice that there is a silver ring hanging around his neck, and suddenly she feels bad for not wearing hers and her neck feels terribly empty; but then again, _why would she? _They're not a couple anymore and all promises seem long forgotten.

.

As he tries his best to win the argument, he wonders when she started to wear dresses. Jade West, wearing a dress (and she looks so damn pretty in it). Then he remembers _his_ closet is stuffed with her clothes and that that's probably why she's wearing new ones. And he knows that it's _her_ clothes, and that he needs to give them back, but giving them back would mean to let go, to get over her, to separate their lives for good, and he decides to delay this for as long as possible. And he is also glad that he isn't the only one who didn't want to venture this step yet.

.

And as they both glare at each other and emotions are hanging in the air so thick that it's hard to breathe and they're flooded with all these memories of bygone days, they realize the irony of a broken guitar being the reason for them to be here. A broken guitar and two broken hearts.

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><p><strong>I actually just wanted to write a quick oneshot based off some headcanons that I came up with while watching<em> Andre's Horrible Girl<em>, but then this got longer and deeper than I intended. There are some parts that I'm not quite happy with, but all in all it's okay, I guess.**

**I JUST NEED MY BADE BACK. Because at this state, all I can write is this kind of depressing stuff.**


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